NPC Resurrection [WIP]

About resurrecting deceased, unique non-player characters.

Introduction

THIS GUIDE IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS. THERE IS STILL A LOT OF TESTING TO BE DONE, AS MANY QUESTS AND SCRIPTS ARE NOT DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED IN THE SAME (CONSISTENT) WAY. THIS GUIDE IS A REFLECTION OF WHAT I HAVE FOUND SOFAR BY CAREFULLY EXAMINING QUESTS AND SCRIPTS, AND TESTING! THEREFORE THIS GUIDE WILL BE UPDATED IF NEW INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.

DISCLAIMER
If you are using any of the procedures in this guide, you will be doing so AT YOUR OWN RISK. A procedure described in this guide, general or NPC specific, may not apply to any other NPC.

KEEP IN MIND
that it is the INITIAL KILL of unique NPCs that will prevent you to start and complete quests in which they are involved, not the resurrection of those NPCs. 

Misconceptions and misuse of terminology

There has been quite a lot of discussion going on about resurrecting NPCs on various platforms. Most heard opinion is that you should NEVER resurrect an NPC, because it will DEFINITELY BREAK YOUR GAME. In several threads I have tried to vitiate lots of unproven arguments to no avail.

Resurrecting NPCs will break your game

No, it will not break your game! However, a quest may fail if an NPC dies after starting a related quest (or if that quest is marked as game start enabled), if that NPC is a reference alias in the quest, and therefore prevent the quest from being completed (essentially breaking the quest). As most NPCs in the various quest lines are essential as from game start or during quests in a quest line, quest lines will not be broken, unless using means to unset NPCs as essential.

The game knows if an NPC has died

No, the game never "knows"! Only if an NPC is a reference alias in a quest, that quest is active and that NPC dies, the reference alias is marked as dead. You could only say: the quest “knows”. This is the reason why many reference aliasses of NPCs in a quest are marked essential during the quest (line), if they are not already marked essential at game start. "Knowing" is disputable, as the game's artificial intelligence (AI) is not that sophisticated, far from it!

Death of NPCs is handled by a death script

There is no such thing as a single death script. In fact, there are several death scripts. The death of a unique NPC is handled by various quests that are marked with the Kill Actor Event. Each of these quests have their own particular scripts attached. Some of these quests are only used to monitor the number of kills or the type of kill. Apart from this, NPC's reference aliasses can have a script attached with the OnDeath Event, which may differ for each NPC. Sofar I have counted a total of 410 different death scripts in Skyrim and its DLCs!

NPCs know if another NPC has died

Yes, some do “know”, but only if that NPC is a unique NPC, and only those NPCs who have a family relationship with or are friends of the deceased NPC. Family relatives and friends are placed in several mourning factions, depending on family or friend relationship, and removed from that faction after 7 ingame days. After 7 ingame days they will have no recollection of their relative’s or friend’s death. If an NPC is killed, bystanders and guards will “know” who killed that NPC by a “kill alarm” and start hunting down the killer.

Deceased NPCs are moved to their burial coffin or urn

Deceased, unique NPCs are moved to a special holding cell after 12 ingame days, not to a burial coffin or urn in the Halls of the Dead. Only their belongings are moved to a coffin or urn, if those NPCs have the DeadBodyCleanupScript attached. The bodies are moved to the holding cell to let the game “know” if an NPC has died. A developer’s comment in one of the scripts tells us that this was the easiest thing to do, to keep track of deceased NPCs.

A resurrected NPC will loose ownership of their properties

I don’t think so, but I’m not 100%, but at least 99% sure, as I haven’t found any script that removes ownership.

Unique or "named" NPCs

When writing about unique NPCs in posts, they are often called "named" NPCs. This is not correct as many non-unique NPCs have names. Even some unique NPCs are not named! When talking about NPCs, one should use UNIQUE and NON-UNIQUE.

Scripts are “baked” into save files

This is also a very often heard argument. But, what does this mean? I simply can’t imagine scripts, the executables (.pex), being added to a save file, as that would be bad programming practice. I can imagine script variables being added to or changed in a save file. Because of these variables it is important only to resurrect NPCs when they are not in their reference aliases, t.i. the quest in which they are involved may not be active and running.

Does storage of script data in save files have any consequences? Generally speaking it doesn’t have any consequences, and is even necessary to keep your ingame progress up to date. However, if you install mods and later uninstall those mods, script data from those mods will still be stored in your save games. Script data are not removed when uninstalling mods. If you want to uninstall a mod, it is best practice to revert to a save from before installing that mod.

Death Catalog

There is no such thing as a "death catalog". The closest you can get to a death catalog are the ACHR and AVIF records in a save file, storage of Actor Value information, such as health, magicka and stamina. When health=0 it means an NPC is dead. However, these values are not fixed, permanent values, but will be changing constantly during playthrough, either by the game itself or by using console commands. Another record in a save file is the NPC_ record, which hold base NPC values, such as default and sleep outfit, race and gender. This record doesn't store any information about a possible NPC's death. Some NPCs can be considered dead during an entire playthrough, if it would be possible to kill them. Not because of a death catalog, but because of a start game enabled quest that keeps running and is never stopped, such as Delphine and Esbern in the “MQ Always On” quest (MQ00).

Death Counter

Although I first thought there was no "death counter", there actually is! This death counter is used by the GetDeadCount console command and Papyrus function. It is used on the base object of any NPC (the ACHR record in the save file), both essential and non-essential. According to posts this counter will NEVER be decreased, but actually the counter is increased upon killing and decreased upon resurrecting an NPC. Once the counter of an ACHR record of non-unique NPCs is decreased to 0. that ACHR record will no longer be present in the save file.

The GetDeadCount() Papyrus function is only used 3 times in the game, including all DLCs:

• Mirri and Tilisu Severin in the quest "Served Cold" (Dragonborn DLC)
  
• Gulum-Ei in the quest "Scoundrel's Folly"

The GetDeadCount console command and function therefore do not play any role in determining the death of a unique NPC, except in those three cases.

Essential or Protected NPCs

This guide only applies to NPCs who are not marked as essential or protected. Most NPCs who play an important role in quests or questlines can be marked essential or protected during the quest, or are already marked as essential or protected at game start. In general you don’t have to worry about those NPCs, unless a mod has removed the markings essential and protected or when using the setessential console command. However, know that protected NPCs can be killed by the player, t.i. by the player only.

There is also the possibility to remove the essential mark for all essential NPCs in the game by adding the following entry in the Gameplay section of the Skyrim.ini file:

bEssentialTakeNoDamage=0

This ini-setting will make every essential NPC in the game non-essential. This will cause severe problems if any of these NPCs die at the start of a questline, such as Arch-Mage Savos Aren, Tolfdir, General Tullius, Legate Rikke, Delphine, Esbern, and many others. As far as I’ve found, there’s only one essential unique NPC who still can’t be killed: Brynjolf. He is not only marked essential when he is selling his Falmer elixir at Riften’s marketplace, but he is also marked invulnerable.

Quests

My previous description of quests was rather extensive, but not really necessary. Only two types of quests are important in this matter:

• Start Game Enabled quests, and
  
• Run Once quests

So, why is this so important? When a quest is "Game Start Enabled", its reference aliases are already filled, such as quest items and NPCs. If an NPC is already in their reference alias and that NPC is killed, the quest may immediately fail. There are two possibilities. The reference alias can either be a forced reference or a reference to a unique NPC.

When a quest is marked as "Run Once", that quest can NEVER be reset by any means, not by using the console and not by using mods. Although one might be able to use the resetquest console command, this would be of no use at all as it will set all stages to 0, except the startup stage, but there will NEVER be any progress and NPCs will not have their "quest behavior"!

Example

The quest "In My Time of Need" is game start enabled and marked to run once. If Saadia is killed, the quest will immediately fail. If the Alik’r warriors near Whiterun’s main gate, or the Alik’r prisoner, are killed before being able to address the player, the quest will lack further progress. If the Alik’r warriors are killed, the quest will not actually start and the player will not receive the objective to seek out the Redguard woman. If the prisoner is killed, Kematu’s hideout in Swindler’s Den will never be unlocked.

NPC Clones

There is the possibility to clone an NPC. This can be done with the placeatme console command. It is not adviced to do so, as the command will put a clone of the NPC in the game world. This clone, better “instance”, will have the same traits, stats, etc. as the base NPC, also have the same base ID, but a different reference ID (always starting with FF). The clone can therefore never play a role in any quest the original NPC would have played a role in!

Cloning a unique NPC may also have some other side effects, such as AI Packages not always being carried out as intended for the original NPC, although the clone will receive the same Base ID as the original.

Credits for pointing me to this problem: Nikusui.

Replacement backups

Various NPCs have a backup to replace them after death, almost 40 in total, jarls, the jarl's housecarl and the jarl's steward not included. Although it would be possible to resurrect them, they will never have their original behavior!

You may be able to restore their original factions and relationships, maybe even clear script variables attached to the reference alias, through using the console, but you can't use the console to restore their original AI packages.

It will be (very) difficult to resurrect the NPC who is being replaced after death, as it requires restoring AI packages. Backup NPCs can, in my opinion, be resurrected before they are used as a backup. The jarl's courts (jarl, housecarl, steward and wizard, if applicable) are excluded, as they are governed by the outcome of the Civil War.

Replacements:

• Addvar (Solitude): Greta
  
• Ambarys (Windhelm): Malthyr
  
• Angeline Morrard (Solitude): Vivienne Onis
  
• Arcadia (Whiterun): Ahlam
  
• Balimund (Riften): Asbjorn
  
• Beirand (Solitude): Heimvar
  
• Belethor (Whiterun): Ysolda
  
• Bersi Honey-Hand (Riften): Drifa
  
• Bothela (Markarth): Muiri
  
• Calcelmo (Markarth): Aicantar
  
• Cedran (Markarth): Banning
  
• Corpulus Vinius (Solitude): Sorex Vinius
  
• Danica Pure-Spring (Whiterun): Ahlam
  
• Elda Early-Dawn (Windhelm): Nils
  
• Eydis (Old Hroldan): Leontius Salvius
  
• Fihada (Solitude): Jawanan
  
• Geimund (Solitude): Horm
  
• Ghorza gra-Bagol (Markarth): Tacitus Sallustius
  
• Hofgrir (Riften): Shadr
  
• Hulda (Whiterun): Ysolda
  
• Iddra (Kynesgrove): Kjeld
  
• Keerava (Riften): Talen-Jei
  
• Kerah (Markarth): Adara
  
• Kleppr (Markarth): Frabbi
  
• Lisbet (Markarth): Imedhnain
  
• Lucan Valerius (Riverwood): Camilla Valerius
  
• Maramal (Riften): Dinya
  
• Oengul War-Anvil (Windhelm): Hermir Strong-Heart
  
• Revyn Sadri (Windhelm): Aval Atheron
  
• Rustleif (Dawnstar): Seren
  
• Skulvar Sable-Hilt (Whiterun): Jervar
  
• Taarie (Solitude): Endarie
  
• Thoring (Dawnstar): Karita
  
• Ulfberth War-Bear (Whiterun): Adrianne Avennici
  
• Ulundil (Windhelm): Arivanya
  
• Vekel the Man (Riften): Dirge
  
• Wilhelm (Ivarstead): Lynly Star-Sung
  
• Wuunferth the Unliving (Windhelm): Dravynea the Stoneweaver

Dead Body Replacements

Some NPCs will be replaced by a dead body when they are killed. The dead body is a copy of the original living NPCs, but its ingame reference is marked as "Starts Dead". References marked as "Starts Dead" can't be resurrected. As far as I have found sofar, this concerns the following NPCs:

• Curwe (Loreius Farm)
  
• Eltrys (Markarth)
  
• Festus Krex (Dark Brotherhood)
  
• Gabrielle (Dark Brotherhood)
  
• Kodlak Whitemane (Whiterun)
  
• Lis (Dark Brotherhood)
  
• Vantus Loreius (Loreius Farm)
  
• Susanna the Wicked (Windhelm)
  
• Tova Shatter-Shield (Windhelm)
  
• Veezara (Dark Brotherhood)

I suspect (not tested yet) that the original NPC is either disabled or immediately moved to the holding cell, or even deleted (permanently removed from the game). Resurrection would then imply removing the dead body from the game world and moving a resurrected NPC back into the game world.

Resurrection Mods

In the Steam Workshop and Nexus you may find a number of "resurrection mods":

• Daedric Resurrection Arrows
  
• Neocatzeo's Resurrection Rod
  
• Restore Life Spell
  
• Resurrect
  
• Resurrection Overhaul
  
• Resurrection Stone
  
• The Art of Resurrection (Nexus)
  
• Resurrection Spell Revealed - Amen (Nexus)

Daedric Resurrection Arrows does not use resurrect, although the name suggests otherwise, but instead uses the Reanimate enchantment (Conjuration), which revives the corpse of a targeted NPC. This causes the revived NPC to fight for the caster for the duration of the spell.

As far as unique NPCs are concerned, none of these mods will provide permanent resurrection, as these mods (except the first one) use the Papyrus resurrect() function, the equivalent of the console command, and do NOT prevent unique NPCs to be moved to the holding cell after 12 ingame days. Also, family relatives and friends will not be removed from the mourning factions.

These mods may work well on non-unique NPCs, but most of these NPCs will be enemies of the player. Do you want to resurrect an enemy you have just killed?

NPCs to be resurrected safely

Several NPCs can be resurrected safely, simply because they do not play any role in major quests. They may be involved in dialogue scenes. However, once they are killed, by whatever cause, and they are not interacting in those scenes, resurrection will not change this. If they are participating in dialogue scenes after resurrection again, this may be due to the way the dialogue quests are designed. Participation in scenes is unpredictable, but all those NPCs will have their normal behavior as defined in the AI packages, although it sometimes may require you to travel to another location and return before it will.

Note, that several of the NPCs mentioned below will never leave interior cells (their editor location) and will never be killed, unless the player kills them.

NPCs marked with an asterisk (*) have been extensively tested in my latest test playthrough. Several other NPCs can also be resurrected and will show their usual AI behavior, but quests in which they are involved may fail. Those quests will always fail if the quests are defined as "Game Start Enabled" and "Run Once".

• *Aeri, *Kodrir and *Leifur (Anga's Mill)
  
• Angi (Angi's Camp)
  
• Anise (Anise's Cabin)
  
• *Sondas Drenim, *Tormir (Darkwater Crossing)
  
• *Abelone, *Beitild, Bodil, Borgny, Bulfrek. Edith, Fruki, Gjak, Guthrum and Lond Northstrider (Dawnstar)
  
• Alvide, Jayri, Ollrod, Sern, Tilde (protected) and Vori (protected) (Dayspring Canyon)
  
• Julienne Lylvieve, *Horgeir, *Lodvar and *Olda (Dragon Bridge)
  
• Arob, Dulug, Ghak, Mahk, Murbul, Nagrub, Oglub, Shel and Umurn (Dushnikh Yal)
  
• Bolund, Delacourt, Kust, *Lod, Narri, *Runil, Solaf, *Thadgeir and Valga Vinicia (Falkreath)
  
• Agmaer, Beleval, Celann, Durak, Ingjard, Mogrul (protected), Bran (protected) and Sceolang (protected) (Dawnguard HQ)
  
• Asta and Sond (Eldergleam Sanctuary)
  
• Oriella (Heljarchen Hall)
  
• *Gwilin and *Temba Wide-Arm (Ivarstead)
  
• *Belchimac and Ragnar (Karthwasten)
  
• *Dravynea the Stoneweaver, *Ganna Uriel, *Gemma Uriel, *Iddra, *Kjeld, *Kjeld the Younger and *Roggi Knot-Beard (Kynesgrove)
  
• Llewellyn the Nightingale (Lakeview Manor)
  
• Garakh, Lob and Ogol (Largashbur)
  
• Bagrak, Ghamorz, Gul, Olur and Sharamph (Mor Khazgur)
  
• Adeber, *Banning, *Cedran, Ennoc, Hathrasil, Hrein, Hroki, Rondach, Sosia Tremellia, Torom and Vigilance (Markarth)
  
• Bolar, Bor, Gadba gro-Largash, Mogdurz, Mul gro-Largash, Urog and Yatol (Narzalbur)
  
• Evul Seloth (protected), Galdruk Hlervu (protected), Meden Maren (protected), Mogrul (protected), Naris Mavani (protected), Rirns Llervu (protected), Slitter (protected), Tolenos Omoren (protected) (Raven Rock)
  
• *Aerin, *Alessandra, Arnskar Ember-Master, *Brand-Shei, Briehl, Drifa, Elgrim, Garthar (protected), Gian the Fist, Hefid the Deaf, Herluin Lothaire, Knjakr, Leonara Arius, Molgrom Twice-Killed, Niluva Hlaalu, Niruin (protected), Nivenor, Ravyn Imyan (protected), Rune (protected), Saerlund, Salvanius, Syndus, Threki the Innocent, Thrynn (protected), Tythis Ulen, Ungrien and Vanryth Gatharian (Riften)
  
• *Alvor, Hilde, Sigrid and Stump (Riverwood)
  
• *Jouane Manette, *Reldith and Rorik (Rorikstead)
  
• Aduri Sarethi (Sarethi Farm)
  
• Aeta (protected) and Finna (protected) (Skaal Village)
  
• *Ahtar, Aia Arria, Bendt, Bjartur, Corpulus Vinius, East Empire Dockmaster, East Empire Dockworkers (2), Endarie, Fihada, Freir, Heimvar, Jala, Kharag gro-Shurkul, Lisette, Melaran, Odar, Sayma, Silana Patreia, Snilling and Snorreid (Solitude)
  
• Ma'zaka (Solitude Lighthouse)
  
• Jesper, Sirgar and Swanhvir (Stonehills)
  
• Ulves Romoran (protected) (Tel Mithryn)
  
• Herkja (protected) and Sirkjorg (protected) (Thirsk Mead Hall)
  
• Hestla, Rargal Thrallmaster, Ronthil, CuSith, Garmr and Watchman (Volkihar Keep)
  
• Angvid, Badnir and Gunding (Whistling Mine)
  
• Acolyte Jenssen, Ahlam, *Amren, *Andurs, Bergritte Battle-Born, Brill, Elrindir, Fianna, Gerda, Gloth, Gwendolyn, *Heimskr, Jervar, Lillith Maiden-Loom, *Nazeem, Nimriel, Saffir, *Sigurd, Skulvar Sable-Hilt and Tilma the Haggard (Whiterun)
  
• Adisla, Ambarys Rendar, *Angrenor Twice-Honored, Aval Atheron, Captain Lonely-Gale, Dalan Merchad, Faryl Atheron, Hermir Strong-Heart, Jora, Lortheim, Luaffyn, Malthyr Elenil, Neetrenaza, *Nils, *Oengul War-Anvil, Sifnar Ironkettle, Tiber, *Torbjorn Shatter-Shield, Ulundil, Voldsea Giryon and Ysgramor (Windhelm)
  
• Sonir (Windstad Manor)
  
• Nirya (protected) (Winterhold)

Resurrection of NPCs

Lots of posts on various platforms, suggest resurrecting unique NPCs by using the resurrect or recycleactor console commands. However, this only has a temporary effect. After 12 ingame days deceased unique NPCs will still be moved to the holding cell, dead or alive! Also, it will still give family and some other relatives, if any, special “mourning” dialogues during 7 ingame days. This may result in some awkward dialogues. If Adrianne Avenicci dies and you would talk to Ulfberth right after Adrianne’s death, he would tell you that he had to buy his merchandise from outside the city “ever since his wife died”, even if she died just a few seconds ago.

Can it be safe to resurrect unique NPCs?

Yes, it can be safe, but only under certain conditions:

• The NPC has to be a unique NPC.
  
• The NPC should not be in their reference alias during a quest, which may cause the quest to fail immediately, or should not play any role in a quest at all. See the test results for Ahter and Ainethach in the "Tested NPCs" section.
  
• Family relatives and friends (association type of the relationship) should be removed from the various mourning factions to prevent mourning dialogues, unless you don’t mind as they will only mourn for 7 ingame days (sometimes those mourning dialogues can be quite hilarious).
  
• The NPC should be added to the WINoDeadBodyCleanupFaction to prevent them from being moved to the holding cell after 12 ingame days, even if alive. Once they are moved to the holding cell, they will be marked as dead again and their "death counter" will be increased.

Which NPCs can be resurrected at all times?

A number of non-essential, unique NPCs, not involved in any quest, can be safely resurrected at all times. You will still have to follow the procedure in the following section in concern with mourning factions and the WINoBodyCleanupFaction.

NPCs in radiant quests

Various other unique NPCs who are only involved in radiant quests as a questgiver, can also be resurrected safely, as long as they are not in their reference alias. Some of these radiant quests are Chop Wood, Gather Wheat, Mine Ore, Quest all Beggars Have, Quest all Drunks Have, and Rare Gifts. Also in these cases you will have to follow the procedures in the following section. If those questgivers are in their reference alias, they may loose all dialogues in concern with current favors, but maybe even after one day you may be able to do them a favor again, as they will only be in their reference alias after having accepted to do them a favor.

NPCs in dialogue quests with scenes

NPCs can be involved in scenes, which are part of dialogue quests. Dialogue quests never appear in the quest journal, simply because the player has no part in these quests, but these quests will be activated when the player enters a certain location. When the player enters the Whiterun market, they may overhear various conversations between Ysolda, Olfina Gray-Mane, Brenuin, and others. These conversations are governed by a scene in a dialogue quest. These scenes may stop from occurring at that particular moment, when an NPC has died and is resurrected. A few dialogue quests with scenes are start game enabled, in particular when the jarl’s courts are involved. This may have consequences if you want to buy a house or a lot in a certain hold.

In my new test run, which I started on October 7, 2020, killing and resurrecting NPCs who are part of dialogue scenes, don't have consequences, if those NPCs are not active in a scene (those NPCs are idle). If they are already active in a scene, it will have consequences at that very moment, but scenes will play as usual after leaving and returning to the location of the scene. Only when the scene is a one time only scene, it may have consequences, but not as severe as I expected. See the "Tested NPCs" section.

Save often!

It may be good practice to save your game regularly by using manual save, to disable autosave (upon wait, sleep, fast travel), and not to use quicksave (F5). Save often, so you may always be able to revert to your most recent save if something goes wrong, without losing too much progress! If your saves are becoming too large, use the pcb console command. This purges all cell buffers in your new save, but it will take longer to load cells when entering those again.

Resurrect procedure

Resurrection

Following is an example of a resurrection procedure. I have used Olfina Gray-Mane in this example, although it may give problems if you sided the Stormcloaks as Olfina should then become a member of the jarl's court, although she is a backup replacement.

Select the Olfina by using het reference ID, resurrect her, and prevent her from being moved to the holding cell after 12 ingame days:

prid “0001A685”
resurrect 1
addtofaction “0009653A”

Instead of using the prid command, Olfina can also be selected in the console.

Remove family and friends from the mourning factions (Eorlund Gray-Mane – father, Fralia Gray-Mane – mother, Avulstein Gray-Mane – brother, Jon Battle-Born – boyfriend and Thorald Gray-Mane – brother, respectively):

”0001A683”.addtofaction “00028E48” -1 
“0001A684”.addtofaction “00028E56” -1
“0001A686”.addtofaction “00028E3E” -1
“00039C8D”.addtofaction “00028E3E” -1
“0001A68A”.addtofaction “0002903A” -1

Warnings

• Once a quest is active, it is of no use to reset the quest if a quest related NPC is killed. In such cases you will have to rely on an earlier save. Resetting a quest may not be succesful and will NEVER be succesful if the quest is marked as “Run Once”.
  
• Merchants with a backup replacement can be resurrected, but they will lack usual behavior and it's near impossible to reverse changes made by scripts after their death.
  
• The various minor quests are designed inconcistantly. A questgiver may provide such a quest or not after resurrection. This seems to depend on the quest tags being set for a particular quest alias.
  
• If the player has a relationship rank with the deceased NPC of 1, 2, 3, or 4, a courier may instantly seek out the player with a letter of inheritance and an amount of gold. The higher the rank, the higher the inheritance will be. This can’t be reversed by using the console.
  
• If the player has killed the enemy of an NPC, a courier may instantly seek out the player with a letter of gratitude and an amount of gold. The amount of gold depends on the relationship rank between that NPC and the player (see the previous item in this list). This can’t be reversed by using the console.

Required information

Reference ID

The reference IDs of unique NPCs and quest information can be found in the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages wiki. See Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages - Skyrim: People[en.uesp.net] (includes Dragonborn NPCs), UESP - Skyrim: Dawnguard NPCs[en.uesp.net] and UESP - Skyrim: Hearthfire NPCs[en.uesp.net] for a listing of all unique NPCs in the game, to find their reference IDs, and to find possible quests related to those NPCs.

Quests

The UESP wiki also lists the quests an NPC may be involved in. Check to see if those quests are not already active in your journal. Start game enabled quests will not show up in your quest journal, when these are not already active.

Relatives and friends

As the UESP wiki may not always list all family relatives, boy- or girlfriend, or other friends, you may have to consult the Creation Kit. If you do not have the CK installed, it can be installed for from Steam Library -> Tools. All other relatives can be ignored as they are not added to any of the mourning factions.



This image displays Olfina's relatives and friends. Avulstein and Thorald will be added to the WIMournBrotherFaction, Fralia to the WIMournMotherFaction, Eorlund to the WIMournFatherFaction and Jon Battle-Born to the WIMournBoyfriendFaction. Hulda will not be added to any mourn faction as the relationship (association) type is unnamed.

Association types used to add NPCs to the mourning factions are:

• AuntUncle – WIMournAuntFaction/WIMournUncleFaction
  
• Courting – WIMournBoyfriendFaction/WIMournGirlfriendFaction
  
• Cousins – WIMournNephewFaction/WIMournNieceFaction
  
• GrandAuntUncle – WIMournKinsmanFaction/WIMournKinswomanFaction
  
• GrandparentGrandchild – WIMournKinsmanFaction/WIMournKinswomanFaction
  
• GreatGrandparentGreatGrandchild – WIMournKinsmanFaction/WIMournKinswomanFaction
  
• InLawAuntUncle – WIMournKinsmanFaction/WIMournKinswomanFaction
  
• InLawBrotherSister – WIMournKinsmanFaction/WIMournKinswomanFaction
  
• InLawGransparentGrandchild – WIMournKinsmanFaction/WIMournKinswomanFaction
  
• InLawParentChild – WIMournKinsmanFaction/WIMournKinswomanFaction
  
• ParentChild – WIMournDaughterFaction/WIMournFatherFaction/WIMournMotherFaction/
  WIMournSonFaction
  
• Siblings – WIMournBrotherFaction/WIMournSisterFaction
  
• Spouse – WIMournHusbandFaction/WIMournWifeFaction

Any other association type can be ignored as NPCs with such an association type will not be added to any of the mourning factions.

Related factions

ObjectID	Editor ID
0009653A	WINoBodyCleanupFaction
00028E6C	WIMournAuntFaction
00029038	WIMournBoyfriendFaction
00028E3E	WIMournBrotherFaction
00028E42	WIMournCousinFemaleFaction
00028E44	WIMournCousinMaleFaction
00028E46	WIMournDaughterFaction
00028E48	WIMournFatherFaction
00029039	WIMournFriendFemaleFaction
0002903A	WIMournFriendMaleFaction
00029037	WIMournGirlfriendFaction
00028E54	WIMournHusbandFaction
00029724	WIMournKinsmanFaction
00029723	WIMournKinswomanFaction
00028E56	WIMournMotherFaction
00028E5A	WIMournNephewFaction
00028E5C	WIMournNieceFaction
00028E5E	WIMournSisterFaction
00028E62	WIMournSonFaction
00028E66	WIMournUncleFaction
00028E68	WIMournWifeFaction

Batch files

Previously I have described the use of a batch file to be a best practice. After several tests I found this not to be the case as ingame execution of batch files sometimes can be handled by the game incompletely. Batch files can’t have delays between commands as there is no console equivalent for the Papyrus Wait function.

How do I test?

Testing is done by using a clean start for every hold. To prevent having to go through the first few quests (Helgen, Riverwood, Whiterun: quests MQ101 thru MQ104), I use Skyrim Unbound, which offers me te opportunitiy to skip those quests, but also provides the opportunity to postpone progress in the main quest line, the appearing of dragons, etc. Most important is that I can choose in which hold capitol I can start the game. Furthermore I use a few cosmetic mods, and some personal mods. Personal mods include changes to some game settings. Apart from Skyrim Unbound, none of the other mods contain any scripts or quests.

When testing, I can’t wait for an NPC to die. Obvious, as under normal circumstances most NPCs won’t die. NPCs can die because of dragon or vampire attacks (or otherwise), but only when the area is 3D loaded, meaning that the player should enter the area. To let NPCs die, I use the console command

kill

which will not trigger a kill alarm (the killing actor is not defined) and keeps me free from guards and other NPCs hunting me down.

Tested NPCs

All listed NPCs have been tested with the above described procudure, unless otherwise indicated. In some cases it was necessary to use the moveto player and resetai console commands to let those NPCs behave as intended by their AI packages and/or the dialogue quests (incl. scenes) in which they participate. The lack of normal behavior may differ from one NPC to another. Sometimes it may be enough to (fast) travel to another location, sometimes it may require using those console commands.

Several days ago I started a complete new playthrough, killing and resurrecting NPCs along the way, using a minimum of installed mods. NPCs in this playthrough are marked with an asterisk (*) in front of their name. As to date I have played 12 sessions ranging from the 17th of Last Seed to the 3rd of Hearthfire.

• *Abelone (Dawnstar) - Immediately after resurrection Abelone had her usual conversation with the player, and continued to chop and carry wood.
  
• Adrianne Avenicci (Whiterun) - Adrianne has been tested multiple times and resurrecting her had no consequences for the quests in which she is involved (Greatsword for a Great Man, Smithing Tutorial).
  
• *Aerin (Riften) - After the kill Mjoll flees and after resurrection Aerin will again start following Mjoll and she will keep fleeing from him. By leaving Riften and re-entering the city the situation will be normalized and both will have their normal behavior and conversations with the player.
  
• *Ahtar (Solitude) - Ahtar, Roggvir's executioner, was killed during the scene which plays upon entering Solitude for the first time. After the kill the platform guard will immediately kill Roggvir and many bystanders run away from the scene. After resurrection of Ahtar bystanders return to the scene. Resurrecting Roggvir will have the platform guard again kill Roggvir and bystander again run away from the scene. Ahtar returns to his place on the platform and picks up his axe and bystanders return to the scene. Roggvir is not decapitated. After a visit to the Blue Palace the situation near the platform has returned to normal and involved NPCs have returned to their default locations. Several ingame days later I was able to accept his quest to kill a Blackblood marauder and receive my reward. He also became available as a follower.
  
• *Ainethach (Karthwasten) - Immediately after the kill, during the initial scene when arriving in Karthwasten for the first time, the Silver-Blood mercenaries left Karthwasten to return to Markarth. After resurrection of Ainethach Karthwasten's NPCs had their usual conversation, although without any dialogue about the mercenaries. When the mercenaries left, the miners started to work in the mine.
  
• *Alvor (Riverwood) - After killing and resurrecting Alvor he had his usual conversation with the player, including buying and selling. The quest "Blacksmithing Tutorial" could be completed without problems.
  
• *Amren (Whiterun) - Immediately after resurrection it was possible to have the usual conversation and receive training (common one-handed). He continued his usual rounds in Whiterun. However, only after leaving and re-entering Whiterun he had his normal greeting towards the player and could be asked about his scene with Saffir. The quest "Amren's Family Sword (Dungeon Delving)" could be completed as usual.
  
• *Andurs (Whiterun) - Immediately after resurrection Andur's behavior was as usual (greeting the player, conversation with the player). The quest "Recover Andur's Arkay Amulet" could be completed as usual. As for Whiterun NPCs killed and resurrected more than 12 ingame days before, there were no coffins or urns in the catacombs.
  
• *Banning (Markarth) - After resurrection of Banning: usual conversation including the option to buy a horse and the dog, and usual scene with Cedran.
  
• *Beitild (Dawnstar) - After resurrection: usual conversation including the option to accept the quest "Mine Ore".
  
• *Belchimac (Karthwasten) - After resurrection: usual conversation.
  
• *Brand-Shei (Riften) - After resurrection he had his usual conversation and the quest "Distant Memories" could be completed without problems.
  
• Carlotta Valentia (Whiterun) - Carlotta has been tested one time (for now). It was necessary to reset her AI, as she vanished after resurrection. She had her normal behavior on the market place and there were no consequences in regard to her quest (A Few Words with You).
  
• *Cedran (Markarth) - Cedran was killed and resurrected approximately 1 ingame hour after Banning. Leaving Markarth and returning showed the scene between Banning and Cedran as usual.
  
• *Gwilin (Ivarstead) - Gwilin was killed and resurrected after the scene with Klimmek. He had the usual conversation and immediately started chopping wood.
  
• *Heimskr (Whiterun) - Immediately after resurrection he continued to preech. If adressed he had his usual conversation.
  
• *Horgeir (Dragon Bridge) - After resurrection: usual conversation including the option to accept the quest "Dragon's Breath Mead".
  
• *Jouane Manette (Rorikstead) - After resurrection: usual conversation and scene with Reldith as usual.
  
• *Lodvar (Dragon Bridge) - After resurrection: usual conversation.
  
• Nazeem (Whiterun) - Nazeem has been tested twice. In the first test it seemed that he was lacking his normal (arrogant) behavior, but it was on Sundas shortly after 12 o’clock, and he was as scheduled visiting his farm, Chillfurrow Farm. After resurrection Nazeem behaved as normal on Whiterun’s market place, including scenes with Anoriath, Carlotta Valentia en Ysolda. It took leaving and re-entering Whiterun for him to have his usual greeting towards the player.
  
• Olfina Gray-Mane (Whiterun) - Olfina has been tested twice. After each resurrection she behaved as normal on the market place and in The Bannered Mare.
  
• Saadia (Whiterun) - When Saadia is killed, her quest (In My Time of Need) will instantly fail, as the quest is game start enabled. As the quest is also defined to run once, the quest can’t be reset and any further progress is impossible. Inside The Bannered Mare, she has her usual behavior as a servant in the inn.
  
• *Sigurd (Whiterun) - After resurrection: continues chopping and carrying wood, cleaning inside Belethor's shop, greeting the player and usual conversation when addressed.

Extensive Test Playthrough

Update 1

On October 8 I have started an extensive test playthrough to see in which way the initial kill and resurrection might affect my gameplay. In this playthrough (Skyrim LE with all DLCs active) I use the follwing mods and their dependencies:

• Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE)
  
• Skyrim Unbound
  
• SkyUI
  
• VioLens
  
• Enhanced Dynamic Wheater System (Sunny)
  
• Max Levelup All Perks
  
• Secure Chests

and another mod which only changes a few game settings (disable screen blood, same walking speeds)

In session 1 (17th of Last Seed) thru session 42 (21st of Heartfire) 46 NPCs were killed and resurrected. In session 42 I started the Civil War questline (joining the Imperial Legion), which was completed in session 49.
In session 50 (3rd of Frostfall) I started the College of Winterhold questline, which was completed in session 57 (8th of Frostfall).
In session 60 (10th of Frostfall) I started the Main questline, which was completed in session 72 (24th of Frostfall).
In session 74 (25th of Frostfall) I performed a full checkup on all killed and resurrected NPCs.

RESULT:
All NPCs performed their usual AI behavior, were involved in dialogue scenes, greeted the player when within minimal greeting distance and provided minor (side) quests. During these 74 sessions (approx. 78 hrs of gameplay) I had only 2 CTDs during fast travel to a new location.

Indepth Information (Technical)

Information in this section is based on observation of the save files using a hex editor, the Freeware Hex Editor XVI32, and the Save File Format as found on the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages.

Information about all NPCs in the game, whether unique or non-unique, is stored in the save files in various records of which the ACHR, NPC_ and REFR seem to be the most important. The NPC_ record contains data as defined in the Object Window in the Creation Kit, which can't be changed, other than in the Creation Kit in the Object Window. The REFR record contains data of the reference of the NPC once placed in the game in the Render Window of the CK, any changes made to the reference in the Render Window (by using the Edit function on the reference) and changes made to the reference while playing the game. The ACHR record contains data about the base object of an NPC if changes have occurred to a reference in the game related to that base object.

Sofar I have limited my study to NPCs from the vanilla game without DLCs (Skyrim.esm and Update.esm). Every record in the save file has a reference ID consisting of 3 bytes. The upper two bits (the most significant bits) the type of ID, where 01 refers to Skyrim.esm. The lower 22 bits hold the actual reference ID of the record. In case of an NPC's reference ID (as displayed when using the console and selecting that NPC) the usual 4 bytes are stored in the save file in 3 bytes, e.g. 0004658E (Forsworn Ravager) as 44658E. The additional 4 is caused by changing the upper 2 bits to 01 and 0100 is 4. With any hex editor you can search the save file for this combination of hexadecimal bytes. However, it's not that simple. You may find this combination more than once and you will have to search for a combination of more known bytes.

The REFR reference ID is followed by the change flags (4 unknown bytes), the type byte (represents the size of the data lengths) and a version (always 4A = 74 as of Skyrim 1.9). If you want to check the REFR record of Amren (Whiterun) you would have to look for the following combination of bytes: 41 A6 6A ?? ?? ?? ?? 41 4A. Why? Simply because you may find the combination 41 A6 6A more than once, each having a different meaning.

Finding the ACHR record works in the same way. Amren's base ID is 00013BAA and stored in the save file as 413BAA. You will most probably find this combination more than once. However, there is no fixed combination of bytes following the reference ID of the ACHR record. The 2 bytes following the ACHR reference ID would display 00 00 if Amren is alive, and 01 00 if he has died, but 00 00 again if he is resurrected. No real proof! Once you kill and resurrect non-unique NPCs, such as bears, Forsworn, bandits, etc. you will see those 2 bytes increase and decrease. An additional check can be made by using the "GetDeadCount <baseID>" console command after each kill and each resurrection.

What really surprised me in my experiments, is that the ACHR records of non-unique NPCs are removed from the save files when this "death counter" is set to 0, but ACHR records of unique NPCs are never removed from the save files once in the save file.

May be continued ...

[Altbert]

@Thusa:

I am anxious to know what will happen in the next days. I never play on the vampire side and so I'm unaware of a vampire's special abilities.

[Thusa]

In my previous playthrough, I had a habit where I would make my followers mortal (with Amazing Follower Tweaks), then use my vampiric powers to resurrect them if they did die (Better Vampires - feed on their corpse with Praestare Sanguinare to resurrect, at least with the version I was using). I figured something weird would happen later, so I was prepared to move myself to them when they vanished, and sure enough, I ended up in the cleanup cell! Thankfully, I could use further console commands to escape and retrieve them. Essential with extra steps, I guess, but it was neat to suppose that my followers survived mortal peril due to my supernatural powers rather than plot armor.

[Altbert]

Problem with most stewards! Once I have hired a steward I instantly make them essential.

[marsetically]

Thank you for this. Didn't knew about the 12 ingame days which will send resurrected to the deadbody clean up cell regardless. This happened to my steward who went missing all of a sudden and which I resurrected earlier. Player move to command revealed she was alive in the dead body cell. Giving dialogue and everything.

[Altbert]

@sket0714:

Thanks! I know about ReSaver and FallrimTools, but never payed any attention to it, but it was generally discouraged to use those tools. But, I will have a closer look at it, since source code is available (open source).

[Rak R_sket0714]

The problem I have faced was a quest to deliver a letter to the npc's father, but her father was dead long ago, even though I resurrected her father based on the resurrect procedure, I couldn't get the npc to offer the quest. So I use ReSaver to delete the quest ACHR records & the npc's father Script Instance which successfully make the npc offer the quest again. I gain so much insight from this article, without this I wouldn't able to fix the stupidity I've made in my playthrough, really appreciate your work!

[Altbert]

No, sorry I haven't been clear enough! Setting the ownership in the Render window can be done by selecting a reference, but the CK will use the Base ID. Something else must have happened, when the clone refuses to use the bed. Maybe ownership of the bed has been removed. Try to set ownerhip again, if you haven't already done so. I will put her on my list for testing. This cloning issue should get a place in this guide.

[Nikusui 😗]

I am not too sure, but can you actually set ownership to a specific ref id with the CK? Cause that would be great if I am to create 2 chars with the same base id. I played around with CK a little a long while back, and i think I can set it to faction id and player. These days, i just use the console and setownership is limited to faction id, base id and player.

[Altbert]

@Nikusui:

Thanks! Constance will not sleep in the bed, because the clone's reference ID has changed compared to the original. The bed was still owned by the original Constance. Setting the ownership of furniture and other objects is done in the Render window in the CK, and not the Object window.

[Nikusui 😗]

As for Medresi, I am not sure but maybe i got sick of her scripted death. I had her wandering around in riften with a mod. Sorry, word limit.